Bird or Bug.. that is the question

Bird or Bug.. that is the question

Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:15 am

So, I was excited to pick my first tomato today, from the near center of my largest plant... not sure how I even saw it.

Anyhow, it looked great on one side, but has a big bite out of the other. I would guess it was from a bird judging by the size (and similar to strawberry damage I was getting before caging them), but could use an extra opinion or two... I know that I was also battling Beetle Grubs for a while, so I hope it's not them.

For reference the tomato is about the size of a tennis ball, and the bite about the diameter of a nickel.

Bird! Look at the shape of the hole. Birds peck a funnel shaped hole. I was told the only reason they do this is to get the moisture. They supposedly are not interested in the tomato. When they have the needed moisture, they leave and leave you with a hole in your tomato. Best way to prevent it is pick the fruit before it is fully ripe. You can also cover your plants as I did last year.

Since it was in the middle of the plant, the birds also didn't see it until it was red ripe.

Caterpillars also normally leave black excrement in the hole as they are eating. It looks pretty clean to me.Ted

A tomato horn worm was doing that to my tomatoes last year. Red and green tomates and the tender stems. Everyday I would go out and the bites wold be bigger and bigger. When I finally spotted him,he was bigger than my thumb and he was hosting a party on his back. I unfortunately flushed it down the toilet, not knowing what I know now about predatory wasps

As soon as he was flushed, I stopped getting holes in my "may-moes"

"The conspicuous consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as a spiritual error, or even bad manners." ~Barbara Kingsolver

tedln wrote:Bird! Look at the shape of the hole. Birds peck a funnel shaped hole. I was told the only reason they do this is to get the moisture. They supposedly are not interested in the tomato. When they have the needed moisture, they leave and leave you with a hole in your tomato. Best way to prevent it is pick the fruit before it is fully ripe. You can also cover your plants as I did last year.

Since it was in the middle of the plant, the birds also didn't see it until it was red ripe.

Caterpillars also normally leave black excrement in the hole as they are eating. It looks pretty clean to me.Ted

Had a pretty lousy scarecrow last year... didn't really fool anyone, lol. I have to think it's a bird too, as I was getting the exact same holes in my strawberries until I caged them... I really didn't want to put the energy in to caging these this year, so I'll work on grabbing them early. Next year, I might put up some sort of chicken wire enclosure with a gate.